Yes. I am a ER/ICU nurse.
CPR, when done properly, WILL break ribs and < 7% of people that have CPR done survive to leave the hospital.
Those are stone-cold facts. The reality of CPR/coding is NOT anything like you see on TV.
Coding someone is an ugly, brutal business; and the patient rarely survives.
Thank You for your honesty.
Don't know where you saw CPR done, but the patient is dead to start with or they wouldn't be coded in 90% of the cases.
In the hospital its an orderly medical procedure...Nurse usually #1 to find patient.calls code,
another nurse brings back board to roll pat. onto.
Nurse starts CPR and within minutes respiratory therapy shows up, to intubate if necessary and takes over CPR,
if patient has no IV lines, nurse puts one in,
doctor arrives and takes over calling out medication to medication nurse that has responded to the code
after a code goes out over the speaker system, its only minutes until everyone that is to respond to all codes is in the room.,
If patient can be borough back and stabilized, they are taken by the bed they are in to ICU or RICU.
I have never heard of broken ribs, but if done by someone not really knowing what they are doing, it can happen.
For some, after a period of time with no responses the patient IE: flat lined and no cardiac response the code is called off and the patient is deemed dead by the attending physician.
artificial breathing by someone from RT is discontinued. If the heart responses and stablilitzed the patient may at that point be put on a mech. ventilator...
Every person in the room has a job and each does it well. any personal not directly involved leaves...
If the person is elderly, I can understand broken ribs due to age and condition of bones that break easily. A healthy young man or woman, broken bones don't usually happen in hospital setting....
I think your % that leave hospital is about right.
Done under the best of conditions, CPR is not a miracle and everyone survives, but they were dead to start with.
To an outside observer it may look chaotic, but it is in fact not.